Beijing, China - Nokia Chairman Risto Siilasmaa met today with high-ranking Chinese authorities and shared the company's plans to launch a special unit to support major domestic webscale players in their efforts to expand overseas.

The team, which will be part of Nokia's strategy organization and led by Chief Strategy Officer Kathrin Buvac, aims to support and accelerate the international expansion of large-scale Chinese internet firms, focusing on areas like data centers, cloud, IP routing, transport and services. Nokia will also lend its expertise in new, growing technologies including edge cloud, artificial intelligence and machine learning.

The creation of the unit supports Nokia's strategy of expanding its business beyond its core communication service provider market. It comes on the heels of the start of operations of the Nokia Shanghai Bell joint venture in China, and underlines Nokia's decades-long commitment to China and to supporting Chinese economic growth.

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